Patent GB-929963-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to signal-coding and line-checking apparatus
IPC: H04L17/02
Filed: 1959-08-04
Abstract: 929,963. Typewriters; type-making machines; strip perforators. O. VIERLING. Aug. 4, 1959 [Aug. 9, 1958; Oct. 1, 1958; June 25, 1959], No. 26530/59. Classes 100 (3) and 100 (4). [Also in Group XL (c)] An electronic device for providing information comprising printed matter and functional controls, such as spacing, in an equal-unit code comprises a keyboard which may form part of an electric typewriter in which the keys provided with individual contacts control a coding arrangement associated with storage units equal in number to the units of the code by means of a first diode matrix of horizontal and vertical rows linked by diodes to points connected to the key contacts and equal to the number of equal unit code combinations and associated with one or more further diode matrices providing selective paths to the storage units, for example, bi-stable circuit devices, or punch magnets perforating a tape with a code combination of holes corresponding to the actuated key. The depression of a key engages a contact 13, Fig. 2, with a contact, such as 14, connected to the appropriate junction point of horizontal and vertical rows Z1 . . . Z16 and S1 . . . S4, respectively, of diodes D representative in combination of the six combination units of the character or function pertaining to the actuated key. The horizontal row selected defining the first four code elements is connected to the appropriate junction point of a decoding matrix II, Fig. 2a, so that the battery B on Fig. 2 is connected through the matrix I to the appropriate horizontal and vertical rows Z<SP>1</SP>1 ... Z<SP>1</SP>4, S<SP>1</SP>1 . . . S<SP>1</SP>4 of the matrix II. The horizontal row Z<SP>1</SP>1 . . . Z<SP>1</SP>4 is connected to the appropriate junction point of the matrix network III, Fig. 2b, effecting the corresponding selection of the punch magnets 01, 02 controlling the first two hole positions of the perforated tape. Similarly the selected vertical row S<SP>1</SP>1 . . . S<SP>1</SP>4 is connected to the corresponding junction point of the matrix IV, Fig. 2c, so that selection of one, both or neither of the punch magnets 03, 04 responsible for the third and fourth perforations, is effected. The selected vertical row S1 . . . S4 representing the 5th and 6th impulses of the code combination is connected to the appropriate junction point of the matrix V, Fig. 2d, to make selection from punch magnets 05, 06 to control the fifth and sixth perforation operations for the tape. Control of type-setting machines.-When the code generating device is used for this purpose, it is combined with justification apparatus which takes account of the widths of the letters with their corresponding letter spacing and different allowances for word spacing for the various forms of types which may be employed. In the diagrammatic arrangement, Fig. 3, for indicating visually when a line is approximately complete so that the signal for line-feed should be entered in the perforated tape, contacts 26 closed by the keys of the keyboard 11 control a width-determining matrix 27, 28 which passes the corresponding 5-digit signal to a storage device 29 and to a register 30 in which the operative elements advance to the right as the registered number increases. Outputs from the elements of the register 30 are connected to lamps behind an upper opening 22 of a screen 33 so that a lighted portion moves to the right as the total width of the successive characters of a line are registered. Spaces between words are registered by the operation of the appropriate key of the keyboard 11 in combination with a circuit 32 including a rotary selecting switch which operates to provide at the output of the circuit the coded binary equivalent of the word space for the type of character employed. The values of the word spaces are registered and summed in elements disposed in the right-hand portion of the register 30 and connected to lamp members disposed behind a lower slot 45 in the screen 33. The arrangement is such that the progressive addition of the word spaces effects the stepping of the illuminated portion towards the left and a line is deemed to be complete when the oppositely moving illuminated portions appear to overlap. To permit the use of different line lengths, the right-hand portion of the register 30 is initially set up to represent in binary form the difference in width units between the maximum line length and that required for the transmission which is to take place. In the case of erasure of a character a switch member 31 operates the storage device 29 to pass to the register 30 the binary complement of the combination passed for the erased character. In a further alternative arrangement, Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 (not shown), to replace the illuminated bands of Fig. 3, a shutter bearing conducting and non-conducting portions so that successive transverse bands when sensed by a number of contact members represent the binary units of successive numbers, is moved by a motor to equalize the binary setting of a counter registering the totalized widths of the characters. A second shutter is similarly moved in the opposite direction in accordance with the setting of a binary counter by the successive word spaces included for transmission. In a further arrangement, Fig. 8 (not shown), corresponding contacts controlled by the shutter and by the appropriate storage of a counter are in series with separate windings of a relay which is operative when one of the contacts is closed to operate a polarized relay to control the rotation of a motor in the appropriate direction to effect closure of the open contact. The relay releases when both windings are energized, and the test is repeated with the necessary movement of the shutter until the positions of the second and remaining contacts controlled by it are identical with those set up on the corresponding stages of the counter registering the total width of characters or the summed extent of word spaces, as the case may be.